Companies named “Best Places to Work in Illinois”

The headquarters for Clayco Inc. was incorrectly listed in earlier versions of the story. Clayco is headquartered in Chicago.

A total of 65 area businesses were recognized Monday for providing employees with a successful work environment as Best Places to Work in Illinois in 2014.

More than 350 people were in attendance at the Chicago Marriott Oak Brook hotel to recognize the companies during the ninth annual event, conducted by the Daily Herald Business Ledger. It is administered by the Best Companies Group of Harrisburg, Pa., which selects and ranks the companies in three categories, based on surveys and interviews of companies nominated for the honor.

Peter Burke, president of Best Companies Group, told the crowd that the winning businesses' employment engagement averaged 92 percent, compared to a national average of 41 percent.

“Your employees believe in their organizational mission, they believe that their work matters and they believe they are being treated fairly and with respect,” Burke said. “It's a pretty amazing accomplishment.”

Those in attendance also heard from representatives of the companies that achieved the No. 1 rank in their respective categories.

Making the top of the list of small companies, with less than 100 employees, was Evergreen Bank Group based in Oak Brook, The bank received a five-star rating from Bauer Financial. For employees, the bank has free breakfast and a shoeshine on Fridays, and parties at work include a holiday gathering and a summer day spent at the racetrack. Employees are also offered a payout for personal time not taken during the year.

Darrin Campbell, Evergreen Bank Group president and CEO, thanked company employees in the audience for helping to make the work environment so positive.

“We take our company culture very seriously,” Campbell said.

Skender Construction in Chicago was the leader among medium-sized companies of between 100-499 employees. Skender, which was tops for the second consecutive year, offers open and honest communication to provide expertise to its clients. Employees are honored for innovation that solves company problems or prevents problems from occurring, and work anniversaries are honored with a ceremony and gifts ranging from $250 to $1,000 up to 20 years of service.

Skender Human Resource Director Lisa Latronico said the company is in a large growth spurt for 2015, and programs like these help attract the best talent.

“They all know who we are just because of the recognition we get from programs like these, “ she said in accepting the award.

In the large-company category, with 500 or more employees, Kingwood, Texas-based Insperity was ranked tops. The company, which has offices in Chicago and Rosemont, offers a wide range of human resources and business solutions designed to help improve business performance.

Insperity offers employees a 50 percent company match up to six percent on 401K contributions, and up to $1,500 for tuition expenses per year. Employees are offered 12 hours of paid volunteer time off per quarter to invest in the local communities.

The company also holds monthly and quarterly employee awards, and those winners are put in the running for the annual service excellence award, which in the past has included an all-expense paid vacation for the employee and a guest.

“If our employees are well taken care of, we're going to take care of our customers ... and that's going to help their communities prosper,” said Bob McIntyre, Insperity manager of HR services.

Presenting sponsors for the event were B. Gunther & Co. of Lisle, NIU Graduate School of Business, Porte Brown, LLC in Elk Grove Village and McGrath Lexus Westmont. Marketing partners include the Human Resource Management Association of Chicago, The Management Association, Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Workforce Boards of Metropolitan Chicago and Oak Brook Chamber of Commerce.